Plans to build a bulky goods warehouse store with a garden centre and Costa drive-thru on a former hotel site near the White Hart roundabout have been revealed.
The applicants have suggested three outcomes for the Oxford Road site next to St Margarets Retail Park but a new Homebase store is considered to be "the most likely outcome".
Madison Hotel, which has now been demolished, suffered extensive fire damage after a dramatic blaze ripped through the building in 2016 believed to be the work of arsonists.
Six youths aged between 13 and 16 were arrested at the time.
The three scenarios for the site include a Homebase with a garden centre, a retail warehouse or a comparison goods retailer.
It was reported in 2018 that both of Swindon's Homebase stores at Greenbridge Retail Park and Orbital Shopping Centre would close.
The new 'bulky goods' store will need parking because the products sold are "generally larger", according to the application.
The plans are being considered and are pending approval on the former hotel site. Madison Hotel closed back in 2014.
Benefits to the area have been highlighted by the developers including increasing the "range and choice of shopping" and the employment opportunities for locals.
They predict around 22 to 28 full and part-time staff will be needed.
The application states: "The majority of retailers prefer to recruit from within the local community, ranging from sales assistants to store managers and from care takers to deputy managers.
"Often general managers live within the community. The benefit of employing local staff is that they create a community environment, are more familiar with customers and staff are able to access their place of work easily."
Applicant Paloma II (Industrial) I LLP says the proposed development is aligned with the council's "pro-growth agenda" and that it would help remediate the site so that it is "no longer contaminated".
Aside from building the retail store, the garden centre and the drive-thru, the developers hope to incorporate 190 car parking spaces and to change traffic routes through St Margarets Retail Park.
They plan to close the access from the slip road off the A419 and to alter the access from the A420, with a new filter lane into the site.
The proposed parking spaces include 10 for motorcycles, 20 for electric vehicle charging, 16 for cycles and 20 accessible ones.
Were the retail unit to open in 2023/24, the estimated turnover for 2025/26 would be £2.89m for a Homebase with a garden centre, £7.63m for a retail warehouse and £13.03m for a comparison goods retailer.
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